Frequently asked questions
The Neighbourhood Awards are a yearly award scheme. The ceremony is held every September at the Federation's Annual Conference at Birmingham's ICC. The Neighbourhood Awards allow housing associations and other invited guests to celebrate the sector at its best. In an effort to make them bigger and better we have made some changes.
Entering
Q. Who is eligible to enter the awards?
A. Entry is for full members of the Federation. Entrants are not required to have signed up for iN business for neighbourhoods. Entry is online only at www.neighbourhoodawards.org.uk except the What We Are Proud Of category, which is administered by your Federation regional office click here.
Q. Can I enter the same project or scheme into different categories?
A. As long as you fully answer the relevant criteria questions you are able to submit the same scheme.
Q.Can ALMOs (Arms Length Management Organisations) enter?
A. ALMOs do not currently have full membership to the National Housing Federation and only full members of the National Housing Federation can enter the National Neighbourhood Awards. However, ALMOs may be entered into the Partnership Award by a full Federation member
Q. How stringent are you on the dates for the Best Neighbourhood Design
A. As long as your scheme can illustrate how the neighbourhood design developed over ten years, your entry is eligible.
Your entry is not time specific to the ten years ending in 2008 you just need to be able to illustrate the beginning and end of a project with a lifespan of ten years.
Q. Are we able to submit one award entry per subsidiary or only one
A. You are permitted to submit one entry per part of your organisation which is
a full member of the Federation (usually this would be the parent group and its subsidiaries). For example, Orbit South Housing Association can submit six entries and Orbit Housing Group can submit six entries
Q. Why have the categories changed?
A. We have replaced the 'Leader of Tomorrow' category and the 'Customer Frontline' category with 'Best Neighbourhood Design - 10 years on, the liveability test' and 'Greener Neighbourhoods' to focus on the environment agenda to which housing associations have made a commitment.
Q. Do I need to have my tenants' consent to enter them into the Best
A. Although formal consent is not required, it is impossible to know an individual's personal circumstances. We would advise you to check with any tenants who you are nominating for an individual award.
Q. Am I permitted to submit a video for supplementary information?
A. Unfortunately, as many of our tenant judges judge on their home computers they will not be able to view videos. However, if you are a shortlisted organisation we may be able to utilise it as part of the footage on the night, giving you even further exposure.
Q. Do I need permission from any organisation I am nominating for the
A. Yes, you should obtain permission from the partner(s) before entering. You should specify the partnership clearly in your submission and provide information about the organisations that you are nominating.
Q. Why do we not give more time to submit entries?
A. We would like to give housing associations more time to submit their entries. However, the judging can be time consuming and we need to ensure that there is time to adjudicate any ties and, of course, to publicise the shortlists before the ceremony in September
Q. How do I know my entry has been accepted?
A. You should get an email confirmation that your entry has been uploaded. We will then notify you, again via email, about whether your entry has been accepted. This may not be immediately as we have to read and vet all entries before they are accepted.
What We Are Proud Of
Q. Can I enter the What We Are Proud Of award online?
A. No, this is the only category where entries are not via the awards website. This is because this award is linked to a series of one day events, some of which are being held after the other online entries close.
Judging is also slightly different for the What We Are Proud Of category.
In each region, an independent judging panel will shortlist three projects and a board member or tenant from these organisations will be invited to give presentations at an event.
Each event will culminate in a vote by delegates to select, for each region, the project or initiative of which we are most proud.
The winner in each region will go forward to the national What We Are Proud Of category. This is then judged by our panel judges. This gives housing associations the opportunity to be a regional winner and a national winner. Entries need to be submitted directly to the region and not loaded onto the website, and there are different closing dates. Check with your regional office for more details.
Q. Why are the closing dates all different for the What We Are Proud Of
A. Each of the regional events are being held on different dates across the country, therefore closing dates for each region are reflective of that.
Q. Do I have to attend if I do not get selected to give a presentation at the
A. No, you do not have to attend but it is a good opportunity to meet with fellow colleagues and see what other housing associations are doing in your area.
Judging
Q. Who can be a tenant judge?
A. Any house association resident or board member who is willing to give up some time to judge the entries online. They will need access to a computer and an email account.
Q. What do tenant judges need include in the supporting statement
Tenant judges should include Information on what their interests and expertise are. We do our best to try to assign tenant judges to the category that they would be most interested in judging
Q. Do tenant judges get a free place at the dinner?
A. Tenant judges do not automatically get a free place to the dinner. We have a limited number of free places, and we will select judges who are interested in attending at random. Unfortunately, we are unable to pay for the travel and accommodation expenses of tenant judges who do come to Birmingham, so please consider whether your organisation would be willing to arrange this for them.
Q. Are tenant judges allowed to bring along guests to the awards
A. Due to the limited space at the dinner we are not able to offer free places to guests. However, if the guest is their carer or they have to be accompanied by an adult we will also allocate a place for their carer/supporter
Q. How are entries judged?
A. Entrants answer three questions, up to a maximum of 250 words per question. Each section is scored. The highest overall scores are shortlisted.
Q. Does the entire judging have to be done in one sitting, or can judges
A. Once you have started scoring an individual entry, you need to complete scoring to save your work so far. However, there is no need to score every entry in one sitting. Once scores are committed you can only delete them by contacting the Awards team. We appreciate the time tenants have committed to judging the awards and there is a lot of information to get through.
Dinner
Q. Does the National Housing Federation pay for tenant judges
A. Unfortunately, as we are a not-for profit organisation and it would be simply impossible for us to pay for the dinner, accommodation and travel for all tenant judges. Every judge receives a small gift in recognition of their contribution.
We believe that judges enjoy participating in the Awards process, as many come back year after year.
We could have a smaller number of judges, and offer each of them a fully paid for place, but this would make the task more onerous for those who were left and would be less inclusive than at present. We always do our best to provide dinner places for a selected few who wish to attend the ceremony.
Q. Do shortlisted organisations automatically get a place at the dinner?
A. Shortlisted organisations can buy dinner places ahead of the crowds. We reserve a set number of places for shortlisted organisations for a limited period before tickets go on general sale.
Q. How do I book a dinner place?
A. Bookings can be made online via the member's area of the National Housing Federation website www.housing.org.uk or by completing the relevant booking form. Payment is either by cheque, credit card or BACS
Website problems
Q. I'm having problems uploading my entry
A. Have you checked that the file size does not exceed the limit?
Q. What If I've made a mistake uploading my entry?
A. Please contact the events team who will have to delete your entry and then you can go back in and re-submit (contact details below).
Q. The website is displaying an error message when I try to submit my
A. Follow the directions given in the error message, including supplying any missing information, and re-submit your entry. If you don't understand the error message or are having trouble following the directions, please use the contact form to send us a description of what you did prior to the message appearing, and also include the exact error message that appeared. This will enable us to diagnose any problems that may be stopping you from submitting your entry. We will contact you if we need further information from you.
Q. The website has timed out from the entrants section
A. Unfortunately, as a security measure the website automatically times outs after half an hour. Please save your entry in a text document before you begin uploading to avoid losing any work.
Q. The formatting is out when I copy and paste to the website
A. We advise that you save your entry form in a text-only format. Copy and paste your content into the relevant fields, then add formatting
Download this information
You can also download this informationDownload Frequently asked question (PDF, 105KB)
Contact
Q. I have other questions not covered here?
If this hasn't answered your questions please fill in an online equiry form or contact the Neighbourhood Awards Events Team
Tel: 0870 330 1567 Fax: 01707 648 122
Email: info@neighbourhoodawards.org.uk
Sponsoring
Q. I am interested in sponsoring an award
A. Please contact Foremarke on 020 8 877 8899 or housing@foremarke.uk.com
